Persona Ideas

This is the page for all those neat ideas for personas we find in research but cannot use. For now this page is organized by theme, but this may change or be expanded upon.

We recommend also searching resources on the folklore, mythology and urban legend section of the links page, as there are many resources there for finding possible ideas for personas.

Agriculture (Food, Harvest, Bounty)

Name	Origin	Description
Uke-Mochi	Japanese	The Japanese goddess of food. She produced volumes of food from every part of her body. This process so disgusted the moon god, Tsukiyomi, that he killed her. As she died, her body continued to produce food.

Death

Name	Origin	Description
Black Dog	British Isles	A large black dog, said to foretell a person's death. There are various names for the dogs, depending on the precise location.
Lemminkäinen	Finland	A shamanistic figure who, while attempting to kill a black swan to win the hand of a daughter of Louhi, drowned in the river of Tuonela. His mother sets on a journey to collect the pieces of his body, sew him together, and bring him back to life with a drop of honey from the halls of the over-god Ukko.
Macaria	Greek	Either the daughter of Hercules who sacrificed her life for her city, or the counterpart of Thanatos who brought good death.
Maximón	Mayan/Catholic	A modernization and mix of the Mayan god Mam and Catholic beliefs who serves as a link between this world and the underworld. Unlike San La Muerte and Santa Muerte, he is not seen as benevolent.
Melinoe	Greek	Daughter of Persephone who wandered the earth with a retinue of ghosts every night.
Meng Po	Chinese Folk Religion	Serves the Tea of Forgetfulness to souls before reincarnation, so that they may not remember their previous lives.
Mors	Roman	The personification of death, similar to Thanatos.
San La Muerte	South American/Catholic	A modernization and mix of Catholic and South American beliefs who is worshiped as a god of death. A benevolent figure, he also answers prayers for good luck and protection against witchcraft.

Excess (Drunkenness, Greed, etc)

Name	Origin	Description
Atë	Greek	The Greek personification of hubris and folly.
Centzon Totochtin	Aztec	The 'Four Hundred Rabbits' in Nahuatl, they govern drunkenness. One of their number, Macuiltochtli, is a member of the Ahuiateteo, the gods of excess.
Lycurgus of Thrace	Greek	The king of Edoni in Thrace, Lycurgus tried to ban Dionysus's cult. Various sources depict different consequences, one of which was a drought that caused his subjects to throw him to a pack of man-eating horses.
Minos II	Greek	The king of Crete in Greek mythology, who was portrayed as a tyrant. Most known for his part in the story of Daedalus and Icarus, as well as the story of the Minotaur. While pursuing Daedalus, Minos was killed by the daughter of Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him in his bath.

Fertility (Creation, Birth)

Name	Origin	Description
Nüwa	Chinese	The goddess responsible for molding mankind from yellow earth, as well as repairing the wall of heaven using five-colored stones and tortoise legs as struts.
Sobek	Egyptian	Primal and sexual, this crocodile-headed god was associated with fertility as well as the power of pharaohs and the military. He is also invoked as protection from dangers associated with the Nile river.

Knowledge (Sages, Scholars, Innovators, Seekers)

Name	Origin	Description
Benjamin Franklin	United States of America, 1706 - 1790	One of the founding fathers of the United States of America and an accomplished diplomat. Known for many inventions, as well as for establishing the first lending library and the first fire department in the new nation.
Daedalus	Greek	A Cretan inventor, who created the labyrinth for the Minotaur among many other inventions. Imprisoned in a tower by Minos to disallow him from revealing any secrets about the labyrinth, Daedalus fashioned a pair of wings for him and his son in order to escape. Icarus flew too close to the sun and crashed into the ocean, where he drowned, but Daedalus escaped, moving on to build a shrine to Apollo where he hung his wings in offering.
The Three Magi (Balthazar, Casper, & Melchior)	Gospel of Matthew, c. 80-90 AD	The three Biblical Magi who visited the Christian figure Jesus on the night of his birth and were considered the first religious figures to worship him. Balthazar was thought to be an Arabian scholar, Casper an Indian scholar, and Melchior a Persian scholar.

Love (Couples, Objects of Desire, Temptation)

Name	Origin	Description
Beatrice	"Rappaccini's Daughter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1844	Isolated to a garden of deadly plants, Beatrice's body is poisonous due to her father's experiments. When Giovanni courts her, his own body becomes poisonous, and he blames her. Bringing an antidote so that they may both be cured, Giovanni is horrified when Beatrice drinks it and dies while stating, "Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?"
Berenice, Egaeus	"Berenice", by Edgar Allan Poe, 1835	As Berenice succumbs to an unnamed illness, her cousin and fiance, Egaeus, a man prone to moody trances, grows obsessed with the only part to be spared by disease: her teeth. After Berenice is buried, Egaeus, in a trance, digs her casket up. Unaware of the fact she had been mistakenly buried alive, he forcefully extracts her teeth from her, and only realizes his horrid act later when he finds himself covered in blood and mud, with a lantern and a box of teeth on his desk.
Lucrezia Borgia	Italy (1480-1519)	A daughter from a Renaissance family known for their Machiavellian tactics of retaining power, Lucrezia was seen as an object of desire and revulsion, though the truthfulness of the rumors of her sexual exploits and acts of murder are sometimes more fiction than fact.
Glashtyn	Manx	A variant of the kelpie myth, the Glashtyn takes the form of a handsome young man. He attempts to tempt young women to come to the river with him where he will drown them.
Pygmalion, Galatea	Metamorphoses, by Ovid, 8 AD	Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor whose devotion to Venus allowed one of his most treasured sculptures, an ivory statue of a woman, to come to life.
Haseki Hürrem Sultan	Ukraine/Turkey (1506-1558)	Also known as Roxelana, she was the daughter Ukrainian Orthodox priest. Kidnapped by Crimean Tatars and sold into slavery, she was selected for the harem of Suleiman the Magnificent. In spite of her rivals for the sultan's love, she became his favorite and became his wife, something that rarely happened in that period. She went on to establish many public foundations, including schools, baths, and places of worship.

Luck

Name	Origin	Description
Arkan Sonney	Manx	A long-haired fairy pig. It's said that anyone who catches one is blessed with good fortune, though they run from humans.

Mystery

Name	Origin	Description
Marie Laveau	United States (1782–1881)	A famous 'voodoo queen' of Louisiana Creole descent, Marie used her influence, her wealth of gossip, and other methods to exert her influence in New Orleans.

Pride

Name	Origin	Description
Atë	Greek	The Greek personification of hubris and folly.
Lycurgus of Thrace	Greek	The king of Edoni in Thrace, Lycurgus tried to ban Dionysus's cult. Various sources depict different consequences, one of which was a drought that caused his subjects to throw him to a pack of man-eating horses.
Minos II	Greek	The king of Crete in Greek mythology, who was portrayed as a tyrant. Most known for his part in the story of Daedalus and Icarus, as well as the story of the Minotaur. While pursuing Daedalus, Minos was killed by the daughter of Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him in his bath.

Prophecy

Name	Origin	Description
Elizabeth Barton	Great Britain, (1506?–1534)	A Catholic nun, Elizabeth began receiving visions of the future after an unknown illness, which made her popular at a time in Great Britain where Catholicism was being threatened by the English Reformation. As her visions grew to challenge Henry VIII, she remained untouched due to her popularity among sectors of the city. Agents of the king resorted to destroying her reputation with rumors about her mental health and sexual relationships with priests. When her reputation was ruined, the Crown arrested her and, after forcing her to say that her visions were false, executed her for treason without a public hearing.

Tricksters

Name	Origin	Description
Colombina	Commedia dell’arte theater, 16th c.	A stock character in 16th century Italian theater. Wife of Pierrot, and pursued by Harlequin. She plays the role of the trickster servant, using her intellect and ability to manipulate others to achieve good ends for her mistress.
Coyote	Native American	A figure appearing in many Native American pantheons, Coyote is portrayed often as a trickster, sometimes stealing gifts from the gods for mankind to being a sort of antihero, depending on the tale.
Harlequin	Commedia dell’arte theater, 16th c.	A nimble, well-meaning trickster servant who was not above indulging in his lust for Colombina and food. While he fears his master, he takes risks to thwart his master's plans.
Iktomi	Native American (Lakota)	A trickster spirit and cultural hero for the Lakota people, often symbolized by a spider. He exemplifies the intersection of folly and wisdom, and is known for his trouble-making ways.
Pied Piper of Hamelin	Germany	A mysterious piper who comes to the medieval town of Hamelin to take care of their rat population. When he is not paid, he turns his music on the children of the village, leading them away with his music. Many believe the Pied Piper is an allusion to a grim reaper figure for children.

Tragic Heroes

Name	Origin	Description
Kullervo	Finland	Described as the only irredeemably tragic character in Finnish myth, Kullervo was by birth a talented magician. A cruel upbringing caused Kullervo to himself become cruel, and an attempt to avenge himself on the one responsible for his suffering only left his entire family dead and drove Kullervo himself to suicide.

Violence, Murder

Name	Origin	Description
Black Annis	British Isles	A blue-faced hag with iron claws that served as a sort of bogeyman. She would haunt the glens at night, looking for lambs and children. She would then tan their hides and wear them on her waist.
Bluebeard	Histoires ou contes du temps passé, by Charles Perrault, 1697 AD	A nobleman with a blue beard, who secretly killed all of his wives and hid them in a locked room. Was foiled by his last wife when she discovered the bodies of his past wives, and had her brothers kill him before he could murder her.
Yara-ma-yha-who	Australian Aboriginal folklore	A being who looks like a little red man with a large head with suckers on his hands and feet and a toothless mouth. It latches onto any person that falls asleep under its tree and drains the person's blood using its suckers, before consuming the victim. It would nap and then throw up the person, then repeat the process. Each time the victim resembles the Yara-ma-yha-who more and more before finally becoming one themselves.

Warriors

Name	Origin	Description
Goetz von Berlichingen	Germany, 1480 - 1562	A knight and mercenary who lost his arm in a battle, only to replace it with a metal prosthetic one and continue his fighting career. Subject of a play by Goethe, who portrays him in a different light.
La Maupin	France, 1670–1707	Also known as Julie d'Aubigny. She was an opera singer as well as a swordswoman, and many stories spread about her flamboyant lifestyle.
Empress Jingu	Japan, 169–269	A mysterious figure in Japanese history, Jingu was a consort to the Emperor Chūai. After his death, she ruled as Regent and led an invasion into Korea and returned victorious after three years, though modern historians have widely debunked this as myth.
Zenobia	Roman Syria, 240-274	The queen of the Palmyrene Empire, who led a revolt against the Romans. Her empire stretched from Anatolia to Egypt until she was taken hostage, visibly led away in gold chains.
Zhong Kui	China, c. 700 AD	Also known in Japanese as Shoki. He was once a mortal man who committed suicide after being rejected as an imperial physician due to his uncomely appearance, and is traditionally regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and other evil spirits.

Water

Name	Origin	Description
Sedna	Inuit	The Inuit goddess of the sea, she also governs Adlivun, the underworld. Hunters prayed to her to ensure that their hunts of sea mammals went well.
Cloacina	Roman	The goddess of the Cloaca Maxima, a system of sewers located in the city of Rome, as well as sexual intercourse. Sometimes worshiped as an aspect of Venus.